Writing Boots

On communication, professional and otherwise.

If we were all in the Communication Corner Tavern …

by // Leave a Comment

… I'd think of this during a lull in the coversation and I'd ask, "Did I ever tell you this one?"

And, not waiting for your answer, I'd launch right in:

I once worked with a graphic designer who not only never read the copy, but didn't seem to have a great deal of respect for it either.

If she found herself an inch or so short on a column, she'd call over the cubicle wall, "Dave, you need to write some more shit."

I got back at her, though. Once a birthday card went around for her, and I wrote inside, "It doesn't matter what I write here, because you never read the copy anyway."

What did she say to that?

Nothing, of course. Because she never read it!

And you'd laugh, and we'd say yeah, bartender, we'd better have one more.

David Murray likes this.

by // 2 Comments

You know what I like? I like pushing the "like" option, on people's Facebook posts.

It's an easy and humble way to express the friendly vigilance we hope our friends feel from us.

How nice it is to see someone's post about having been accepted into a college, having had an efficient day, having stayed up too late reading a good book, having returned home home rested after a good vacation, having shoveled a lot of snow, and just to be able to push a button that says, "Like."

Maybe this electronic equivalent of a low-five or a thumbs-up or an avuncular wink comes as a special relief to a known writer and communicator who often feels obligated to say something special: if not profound, at least clever.

No more.

From now on, just, "Like."

Well golly, if we writers could describe the design we wanted, we could design it ourselves!

by // Leave a Comment

If the whole world was about communication, there wouldn't be a Valentine's Day. There would be an:

Acknowledge to Your Designer That,

for Someone Who's Supposedly Good With Words and People, 

When You Talk About Design

You Turn Into a Drooling, Jabbering, Half-Rabid Cretin

Day.

On that day, editors, writers and designers would gulp red wine and contemplate, with gnashing of teeth and mirth alike, the chronic horse hockey the graphic designer must suffer.

* Hat tip to McMurry design ace Amy Wimmer for sending the delicious link.